Steve Smith

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When he pushed the ball off Mendis into the covers and moved to his half-century Smith barely reacted. For the time being he might be getting in the ear of Pat Cummins and trying to ask for more of a bowl following his remarkable 4-10 in the first Test in Galle. His missed chance on Green was not as costly, as the right-hander was trapped in front for four attempting a sweep from Jayasuriya. He finished with a top score of 26 from three Tests, where he was removed three times and finished 11 not out in the second innings of the third Test in Lahore. His century on Friday made it a hat-trick of triple figure scores in Test cricket in which Labuschagne has made the opposition rue a mistake. While Head was phenomenal at the top of the order against the white ball in Pakistan, he missed out against the red ball. That story belonged to Warner on day one of the second Test as he was rocked by Kasun Rajitha in the fifth over for five. While that is not a massive amount of innings, the fact he had gone past 40 in seven of those, but had not made more than his 90 in Rawalpindi, became a cause for concern. Just as he drove audaciously on the up in England in 2019 when he was at his pomp, the right-hander smoked a cover drive to the fence in Galle. If ever there was a more determined look for a man whose position was as safe as houses and in the midst of a series with little fanfare, this was it. The Australian flags waved in the wind, his teammates clapped and reluctantly he walked back down the pitch to shake his partner’s hand before the most modest of raised bats to the pavilion. A week earlier he had walked off the ground furiously at his teammate for robbing his chance of registering another mountain on his batting chart, but there was nothing stopping the 33-year-old from posting his 28th century on Friday.

Without a century since January 2021, Smith produced one of his classic Test innings to help put Australia in charge of the second Test on Friday, ...

Steve Smith broke his 18-month drought after hitting a century for Australia against Sri Lanka - Steve Smith ended his 18-month wait for a Test century in Galle on Friday Steve Smith FINALLY ends 18-month century drought as Australia gun hits superb ton to help the tourists make a strong start to second Test in Sri Lanka

Australia can get more out of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith - dual tons in Galle were the first step.

And then when you get out there you know hopefully like today we’re obviously fortunate we won the toss and, and it was a really nice wicket and we were able to bat.” “I think a really good method is you prepare for the worst and then adjust if it’s better. Getting that one today, I think is really going to open up the floodgates and you know, I think we could have a really big next how many, over 10 Tests we have next year. “The forward defence is the one,” he said when asked what was a ‘safe’ shot. “It’s usually one of us getting out and one getting a big score,” Labuschagne said. “Both of us felt like we’d left some runs out there for the last few Tests,” he said.

Australia have an upper hand at the end of the first day of the final Test match as centurions Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne save the day.

Sri Lankan did their part but they would be expected to make a strong return on the second day in order to restrict the visitors. Smith, while playing it cautiously, looked for an opportunity and smashed a couple of fours after the new ball was taken, which helped him get to a blistering century. Smith, however, repeatedly capitalized on even the smallest scoring opportunities and appeared to be in fine form. While Labuschagne was the dominant, Smith was happy to take the backseat. Smith was then joined by Travis Head in the final session as Sri Lanka fairly maintained control of the situation, which allowed them to increase pressure and forge a few opportunities. However, it was not the desired start they looked out for as Rajitha quickly removed David Warner (5 off 13), but Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne soon formed a substantial partnership.